Years ago I was lead to believe that to practice Nichiren’s Buddhism correctly, one had to attend meetings and belong to an organisation. Nowadays I’ve come to understand that anyone, regardless of whether they become a ‘member’ of a group or not, can benefit from their own personal practice.

The universal Law of myoho-renge-kyo represents the identity of what some now refer to as the ‘unified field of all consciousnesses’. In other words, it’s the essence of all existence and non-existence, the ultimate creative force behind planets, stars, nebulae, people, animals, trees, fish, birds and all phenomena, manifest or latent. All matter and intelligence are simply waves or ripples manifesting to and from this core source.

Consciousness (enlightenment) is itself the true creator of everything that is, ever was and ever will be, right down to the minutest particles of dust, each being an individual ripple or wave. The big difference between chanting ‘Nam-myoho-renge-kyo’ (Nam is like a password to our deepest inner-self) and most conventional prayers is that instead of depending on a middle man to connect us to our state of enlightenment, we’re able to do it ourselves by tapping directly into it by way of self-produced sound vibration.

On the subject of ‘what or who is God?’, when we compare the concept of ‘God’, as a separate entity that is forever watching down on us, to Nichiren’s teachings, the true omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence of what most people call ‘God’ is our enlightenment, which exists nowhere else but within us. When the disciples asked Jesus where the Kingdom of God is, didn’t he tell them that it was within them?

Some say that ‘God’ is an entity that can never be seen. I think that the vast amount of information that is constantly being conveyed via electromagnetic waves gives us proof of how an invisible state of what many call ‘God’ could actually exist. It’s widely known that certain data being relayed by way of electromagnetic waves has the potential to help bring about extraordinary and powerful effects, including instant global awareness of something or mass emotional reaction. As well as many other things, it’s also common knowledge that these waves can be used to detonate a bomb or to even enable NASA to control the movements of a robot as far away as the Moon or Mars. However, none of this is possible without a receiver to decode the information that is being transmitted. Without the receiver, the information would remain impotent. In a similar way, it’s very important for us to have our receiver switched on so that we can activate a clear and precise understanding of our life, all other life and who we and all else that exists truly is.

Chanting ‘Nam-myoho-renge-kyo’ allows us to achieve this because it lets us to reach into the core of our enlightenment and switch it on. That’s because, as I mentioned before, the sound vibration of ‘myoho-renge-kyo’ represents the combination of the three major laws that underlie all existence. ‘Myoho’ represents the Law of latency and manifestation (Nature), and consists of two alternating states. One state of ‘myo’ is where everything in life that’s not obvious to us exists. This includes our stored memories when we’re not thinking about them, our hidden potential and inner emotions whenever they’re not being expressed, our desires, our fears, our wisdom, happiness, karma, and more importantly, our enlightenment. The other state, ‘ho’, is where everything in Life exists whenever it becomes obvious to us, such as when a thought pops up from our memory, whenever we experience or express our emotions, or whenever a good or bad effect comes forth from our karma. When anything becomes apparent, it simply means that it has come out of the state of ‘myo’ (dormancy/latency) and into a state of ‘ho’ (manifestation). It’s the difference between consciousness and unconsciousness, being awake or asleep, or knowing and not knowing something.

The second law, ‘renge’, governs and controls the functions of ‘myoho’ – ‘ren’ meaning cause and ‘ge’ meaning effect. These two laws, ‘myoho’ and ‘renge’, work together simultaneously and underlie all spiritual and physical existence. The final and third part of the tri-combination, ‘kyo’, is what allows the law ‘myoho’ to integrate with the law ‘renge’. It’s the great, invisible thread of energy that fuses and connects together all Life and matter, as well as the past, present and future. It is often termed the Universal Law of Communication. Perhaps it could even be compared to the ‘string theory’ that some scientists now suspect exist.

Just as our body cells, thoughts, feelings and all else are constantly fluctuating within us, everything in the world around us and beyond is also in a constant state of flux, in accordance with these three laws. In fact, more things are going back and forth between the two states of ‘myo’ and ‘ho’ in a single moment than it would ever be possible for us to calculate or describe. And it doesn’t matter how big, small, important or trivial anything may appear to be, everything that’s ever existed in the past, exists now, or will exist in the future, exists only because of the workings of ‘myoho-renge-kyo’. These three laws are also the basis of the four fundamental forces and if they didn’t function, neither we nor anything else could go on existing. Simply put, all forms of existence, including the seasons, day and night, birth, death and so on, are moving forward in an ongoing flow of continuation, rhythmically reverting back and forth between the two states of ‘myo’ and ‘ho’ in accordance with ‘renge’ and by way of ‘kyo’. Even stars are dying and being reborn again in accordance with the workings of ‘myoho-renge-kyo’.

‘Nam’ is like a password or key; it allows us to reach deep within our life and fuse with or become one with ‘myoho-renge-kyo’. On a more personal basis, nothing ever happens by chance or coincidence, it’s the causes that we’ve made in our past, or are presently making, that determine how these laws function uniquely in each of our lives from moment to moment, as well as our environment. By facing east, in harmony with the direction that the Earth turns and rhythmically chanting ‘Nam-myoho-renge-kyo’ repeatedly for a minimum of ten minutes daily, any of us can gain actual proof of its effects in our life. By building up a force from within, it allows us to pierce through even the thickest layers of our karma and reach directly into the ultimate wisdom of our and all other life. Unlike the fantasy of a magic wand to make our problems vanish, chanting ‘Nam-myoho-renge-kyo’ awakens our innate wisdom and brings to the surface our hidden potential, a much clearer realisation and understanding of our good and bad karma, and positive ways that we can both cope with and change our negative circumstances into positive ones. It brings forth the wisdom that can free us from the ignorance and stupidity that is preventing us from accepting and being proud of who we truly are, regardless of our race, colour, gender or sexual preference. It also allows us to see and understand things outside of ourselves more clearly and, by way of the electromagnetic forces of which we are all a part, helps us to connect with, or draw towards us, any external circumstances or help that we need. Proof of this effect soon becomes obvious to anyone who chants ‘Nam-myoho-renge-kyo’ on a regular basis. Of course, the more sincerely we chant, the more powerful and faster its effect will be.

After watching many video’s on NDEs and listening to different professionals state their opinions, I feel a sense of obligation to finally share my experience, which, with the help of Hubble, has definitely been verified…
My NDE happened over 47 years ago, when I was struck by lightning while talking on the telephone in my living room. According to several doctors at the hospital it was a miracle that I was not physically damaged in any way. When I was able to talk, I kept telling them about the beautiful light and the magnificent journey that I’d taken through the stars etc, to meet it, but none could explain where I’d been. It was my home doctor who later suggested that I had possibly been momentarily dead. I described the unforgettable Light to many people in the years that followed – some seemed to understand but most thought it was probably just an illusion.

During the 80s and 90s a lot of doctors who made comments on NDEs, described them as something that was programmed within the brain to take place during death, in order to help people deal with the dying process. This came as a big disappointment to me, because my beautiful experience with the multi-coloured Light had taken away the fear of death and helped me move towards a path that would eventually allow me to understand much more about myself and the world/universe around me than anyone had ever taught me. I reluctantly began to accept the doctors explanations with deep regret, until one day in 2003, I was glancing through a newspaper and came across a picture taken by Hubble of the Cone Nebula. The picture was in colour and instantly took my breath away – I trembled and my head spun. It looked exactly like the Light that I’d visited in 1970 and had been describing to people ever since – (even today, it seems like I was there only a moment ago).

The Light was the most beautiful experience of love and security, that even after all these years nothing has compared. It felt like I’d found my way home after being lost in a scary jungle. The Light’s multitude of vibrant colours all blended together in what seemed to be perfect harmony. Each of the colours seemed to be intelligent – it was as if they were alive and sending me a loving welcome.Then I was whisked backwards away just as quickly as I’d arrived. I burst back into the bubble that I’d burst out of before I’d entered space to head to the Light.

From then on, I begun to question everything that I’d been taught about God. It was as though something inside me had been switched on, exposing me of a far-distant extension of my reality and it was very scary. I was left with a huge void to fill and no knowledge on how to fill it. Motivated by an underlying driving force, I began searching for something with no idea of what it was. I went from one country to the next and to add to my dilemma, I seemed to arrive just in time for a disaster, including revolutions, typhoons and earthquakes etc. There were so many times that I could have been killed like the many others around me that were.

Then one day while I was napping in Hong Kong, I had a dream and in it I was informed that there was even more chaos to confront before my destiny would take me to a country, where I would meet my best friend (future friend that is) who would take me to the foot of a great pointed mountain. Once there I would find the truth that I needed to find. I told friends about the dream, who laughed and joked about it – I also laughed with them.

Not long after the strange dream 500 hundred people were killed by landslides all around me – an apartment building a couple of doors away from mine, fell over knocking the top 5 floors off the empty building being built beneath it – there were cries of horror and the smell of rotting bodies. Unable to cope, I jumped on a plane and headed for Manila, arriving just in time for a record breaking flood and the revolution that ended the Marcus ruling. I had to run for my life and leave all my belongings behind to get on a rescue flight back to Hong Kong.

By then I was drinking heavily and so depressed that I was even thinking of contemplating suicide. An agent was in Hong Kong looking for a replacement vocalist for an American band that were playing in a Tokyo club. Next thing I knew, I was on-board a Jumbo and in Japan trying my best to perform with a very wild heavy metal band (no easy task for a cabaret singer). At the club I met someone who became the best mate that I’d ever had. He taught me to chant the words Nam-myoho-renge kyo and took me to a beautiful temple at the foot of Mount Fuji (I knew right away that it was the pointed mountain that I’d been told about in my dream). Like most religious groups do, the organisation promoting the chant, claimed to be the only one’s right while all the others were wrong. The chant had an amazing effect on my daily life – it was like an awakening and somehow it connected me to the beautiful Light – there were even moments, while chanting, that I experienced some of the wonderment that I’d felt at the Light.

I stuck with the organisation to learn as much as I could and then spent years trying to divide what Nichiren’s actual teaching was from the added politics of the organisation. I eventually left the organisation and have since depended on my own volition to sort things out. In doing so, I have studied other beliefs and discovered that some of what they teach is almost the same as what Nichiren taught (Nichiren was the first person to chant NMRK and teach it to others). The one thing that became more and more obvious to me was that the three major Laws of (Nature – Cause and Effect – Communication or oneness of past/present/future) represented by myoho-renge-kyo, represent the underlying fundamental Laws of everything, no-matter what we choose to believe or not. I also gained a better understanding of the teachings of Jesus (not by what was written about his lessons by his disciple’s (who had all denied even knowing him when he was arrested) but by the example that he set ‘between the lines’. He also taught Nature – Cause and Effect (reap what we sow) and prayer/communication. But it appears that the disciple’s didn’t get it right, even though when they asked where the Kingdom of God was and Jesus told them that it was within their own lives, they still believed and taught others to believe that God was a man in the sky.I also got to understand that, minus all the added misconceptions,Nichiren taught many of the same things that Jesus taught.

Many scientists now say that our solar system was born out of a nebula – that physically everything, including ourselves, are made out of stardust and that energy never disappears or ends. Nichiren taught that our body is a small planet made up from the Earth’s environment, and which relies on Earth’s environment to exist – that our life-force is a small universe that contains ‘everything’ that exists, even though we’re only awake to a very small part of it. Like Jesus taught that the Kingdom of God is within (which obviously must mean that’s where God is also) Nichiren taught that Enlightenment (Buddhahood) is within and that everyone has the hidden potential to achieve Buddhahood. He also left instructions that his future followers must never worship him but that they should put their faith in the ‘Law and not the person’.

In his writings (the Gosho) Nichiren explains that there are millions of other worlds like ours with their own mountains, rivers and moons – and that there are also places that are wonderful far beyond our present comprehension to conceive and understand. In the physical sense they are scattered all over the universe – in the spiritual sense they are all located within each of us. (one way to understand this is how TV works etc.) It doesn’t matter how many TVs there are, they are all able to present the same thing if tuned in.

The one thing that confused me after seeing the pictures of Cone Nebular, taken by Hubble back in 2003, was how could I have possibly traveled that distance and back, as even at the speed of light it wouldn’t have been possible. Yet, long before Hubble was even built, I accurately described the Cone nebular to many people. It’s only in the last few years that it has finally made sense to me. I went there and back within my own life-force – I traveled across the universe that each of us contain within – not physically but spiritually. I now know that NDEs are journeys we make beyond our physical/Earthly limitations, into our own unknown selves. I also believe that, by way of continuous physical rebirths, we are on a journey to within to eventually discover our true selves – reach a point where we can understand life as it truly is and awaken the wisdom to comprehend and know the real meaning of what so many refer to as being ‘God’.